This invention relates to a telephone answering system for handling overflow calls from a telephone answering center.
Telephone answering centers have come into widespread use. Typically, such centers include a number of operator stations, ech adapted to receive telephone calls directed to a common number. For example, sales order centers and service centers may include a large number of operators, all handling calls directed to the same number.
During periods of peak traffic, such telephone answering centers suffer from a severe problem of overflow calls that cannot be handled by the answering center itself. In the past, a number of approaches have been used in an attempt to handle such overflow calls.
The simplest approach is to place the overflow calls on hold or to present the overflow calls with a busy signal. This approach brings with it important disadvantages because a significant number of callers placed on hold will simply hang up, and a significant number of callers presented with a busy signal will not call back.
A second approach is to divert overflow calls automatically from the telephone answering center to another service center. For example, automatic call distributors have been used in the past to route overflow calls automatically from a first telephone answering center, such as a sales order center, to a second telephone answering center, such as a service center, which can be either situated remotely or at the same location as the first answering center. In a somewhat similar manner, national airline reservation networks include a numer of airline reservation centers, along with means for automatically diverting overflow calls from a first to a second center. Under this approach overflow calls are handled live at the second center, and therefore relatively specifically trained operators are required in order to handle the overflow calls properly.
A third approach to the overflow call problem is to direct overflow calls at the telephone answering center to telephone answering machines at the center. Such telephone answering machines record information from the caller, which typically includes the name and telephone number of the caller, along with additional information that may help in handling the call. Such answering machines at the telephone answering center have been used with automatic call distributors of the type described above. This approach places the telephone answering machines at the same location as the telephone answering center, and it requires personnel from the telephone answering center to transcribe the recorded messages on the telephone answering machines, and then to act on this transcribed information. Typically, if a telephone answering center is overloaded, personnel are not available to perform these transcription activities. For this reason excessive delays often occur between the time an overflow call is received, and the time the recorded information is transcribed and acted upon.
The present invention is directed to an improved system for handling overflow calls from a telephone answering center, which to a large extent overcomes the problems of the prior art described above.